We are satisfied with pilot - EC
The Electoral Commission has expressed satisfaction with its pilot exercise on the Biometric Voter Registration system in all the 16 regional capitals.
It said the EC would also use the lessons learnt to improve upon the conduct of the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise.
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“The commission is appreciative of the genuine interest and enthusiasm shown by the general public and political parties to make this pilot a success,” it said in a statement.
It explained that the essence of the exercise was to evaluate the preparedness of the EC for the upcoming Voter Registration Exercise.
“Among the metrics that were tested was the efficiency of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits and its adaptability to various operating conditions in various parts of the country,” it said.
The statement said the EC also took the opportunity to evaluate the various mitigation measures it had put in place to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease during the registration period.
It said political party representatives were present at each of the centres to observe the exercise.
Registration
It said a total of 1,990 applicants were registered on the two-day exercise, with 745 applicants registered on the first day and 1,245 on the second day.
Giving a regional breakdown, it said, the Bono Region recorded 141 registrants; Savannah, 128; Ahafo 189; Central 141; Upper West, 115; Northern 154 and North East 103.
The rest were Volta 141; Upper East 125; Ashanti 166; Eastern 128; Western 73; Oti 103; Western North 100; Greater Accra 98; and Bono East 85.
It said the Western Region registered 73 applicants, the highest number of registered applicants on the first day of the pilot.
On the second day, it said, the Volta and Ahafo regions had the highest number of applicants registered with 105 each.
“The region with the lowest applicants registered was North East with 51.”
“Using the expected improved performance on the second day, the average number of registrants registered per day was 83. This metric is expected to only get better,” it stated.
The statement said the EC was to register over 100 registered applicants per kit per day, as was attained by some regions during the pilot.
“At that level of performance and with the continued enthusiastic participation of the Ghanaian public, the commission is confident of registering some 13 million plus applicants within the first 21 days of the mass registration exercise,” it said.
Challenges
The statement said the exercise went on smoothly at all the designated centres, except in the Western Region where the BVR Kit developed a fault on the second day.
“This led to the suspension of the exercise in the Western Region but afforded the commission the opportunity to test its inbuilt processes of dealing with equipment breakdowns during the registration process,” it added.
It said the lessons learnt from the investigation would further improve the EC’s response to such occurrences.
